bloogs blowing by

my last post about poop, or other exciting things that happened on the cruise

so there was another exciting [to me] thing that happened on the cruise.

there were no diapers.  tae has been peeing in a diaper since thanksgiving, and pooping in diapers.  it was a team effort trying to get tae to poop in the potty - with her teachers, grandparents and everyone supporting my efforts.  there were poop charts, ice cream incentives, and other cool things.

and then, on the boat, there were NO DIAPERS!  and guess what, she pooped in the potty.  everytime.  and, once we got off the boat too.  woo-hoo!!

and, i think this my last post about tae's poop.  because she's getting big, and i don't want to be writing about my kindergartener's poop.

but wait, how am i supposed to clean out her big kid potty after she poops?

tidbits

we leave tomorrow evening for nyc.  and then sunday we get on a boat... for sunshine and vacation.

and right now?  totally procrastinating.  i don't enjoy packing.

*    *    *    *    *    *
last night i wasn't paying attention and i accidentally put my toothpaste on tae's toothbrush.  she doesn't like mint at all, so when she stuck the toothbrush in her mouth, she made this completely disgusted face.  "mommy, it's spicy!!"

i told her that i put my toothpaste on her brush by accident, that i wasn't paying attention.  and she said, "it's ok, mommy.  next time i can help you."

*    *    *    *    *    *
this morning i was telling tae how we were going to see someone this weekend who was a friend of mine in college.

T:  "at vassar?"
M:  "yes."
T:  "where was i?"
M:  "you were just a little egg in my belly."
T:  "do i have eggs in my belly?"
M:  "you have little tiny eggs, but they won't grow until you get big."
T:  [jumping] "the eggs are jumping."
M:  "when you get big, do you think you'll want to be a
      mommy?"
T:  "yes.  what's my baby's name?"
M:  "well, mommies and daddies and parents get to pick names
      for their babies.  what will you name your baby?"
T:  "tyronne!  and then tyronne will have eggs in his belly!"
M:  "well, only girls have eggs in their bellies.  is tyronne a girl
      or a boy?"
T:  "tyronne is a girl."

oy.  i tried to explain to her a little bit about how you need a boy before your egg starts to grow.  but i know that that's not entirely true.  i want my explanation to account for babies that have two mommies or two daddies or any permutation of possible parenting set ups. 

how do you explain to a three year old life before they existed?  i know it's a little unfair to tell her that she was an egg in my belly.  but it's TRUE!  (no offense to dads/sperm donors or egg donors or others involved in fertility out there.)

this is getting challenging. 

*    *    *    *    *    *
i'm supposed to be packing.

to strong women with strong voices

when i first started to blog, i thought that it would be cool to put my thoughts and experiences out there, with the hope that someone would read what i wrote and realize that they are not alone.

and, while that part may have come easily, the part that was most surprising and least expected was how much community could be built by this simple act of sharing my thoughts with others.

now, years after starting my first little blog, i feel like a whole community has grown around my blog life.  it is a community that cheers when the good things happens and mourns together when things are tough.   it is as much of a community as any real life community that i am a part of.

as a single working mother, i don't really have time to get out there and meet other parents, especially the asian american single/about to be single working mother type.  when i find people who i can relate to, whose stories just resonate with mine, it's impossible to turn that connection off.  i need it to make it through my day, and i need to make sure they make it through their days too.

to MN - we are all here for you.  you will get through this because you will.  i am inspired by your strength, your determination, and your love for you daughter.  i remember that a woman i know who is also divorced said to me, "i know this sounds trite and doesn't make a difference for you today, but it will get better."  and it did sound a little trite, but she was right.  it will get better.  i know it will.

age appropriate

my daughter likes to read.  and she likes to read whatever she can get her hands on.  she'll move straight from shel silverstein to marjane satrapi to time magazine.

i want to let her read whatever she wants.  who am i to judge what is age appropriate? 

this weekend, she picked up an issue of time magazine at my parents' house.  she was flipping through it, when she found an add trying to raise money to help kids with cleft palates.  there were all these pictures of little kids with their teeth and lips all mis-shapen.  tae was so curious about these pictures.

she asked me about them, so i started telling her about how these kids' mouths didn't finish growing while they were in their mommy's bellies.

on tuesday, she came across the magazine again, and started intently flipping through the pages.  she stopped again to look at the faces of the kids.  i'm not sure what else i should tell her about these kids.

then she started looking for the pictures of all the people who wanted to be president.  i knew that she was looking for a table comparing all of the different candidates that was in a *different* issue of time magazine.  she insisted that it was in the cleft palate issue. 

when i finally went to retrieve the *other* issue of time magazine, tae still wasn't convinced.  and, instead of conceding that i was right, she took the second issue of time magazine ad embedded it in the first... which made her, mostly right. 

*********************

i asked her who she thought would make the best president and she pointed to barack obama.  when i asked her who she thought would be the worst president, she pointed to john mccain.  when i asked her why, she said it was because he had funny hair.

*********************

over the weekend, we were doing some arts and crafts.  she told me that she wanted to decorate a B.  when i asked her who it was for, she said, "barack obama!"

she even went so far as to write 2008 on it. 

*********************

maybe we should stick with shel silverstein.

happy new year

so here are my new year's resolutions:

1. join the gym at my school (so there will be a greater chance that i will actually GO!)
2. take the GREs (again!) in 2008 so maybe i can apply to grad school (again!) in 2009
3. write in my own journal at least half as often as i write on this blog

i love the holidays

if anything

if i've succeeded in passing anything along to my daughter, at least i now know that i have successfully passed on my obsessive compulsive nature.

this morning, tae emerged from the bathroom and said, "look!  they're in a row!"

sending up a flare

we're still alive.

i have a new job.  it's in the same office, but it's a new job, with new responsibilities.  i'm viewing it as a new job.  it's very very busy, and very very stressful.  i'm happy about it though.

we had a party for tae on saturday. she doesn't turn 3 until the 24th, but we're so over scheduled that this was the closest saturday we could schedule her party.  (photo evidence here)

tae is finally getting into the groove of school - she's been napping, and is excited every morning to go, and excited every afternoon when i pick her up.

i'm a little sad that i've been so out of touch - i'm behind in all of my communications, blog, im, email, everything.  i have about five loads of clean laundry that haven't been folded.  we ran out of toilet paper in the house last night, and simultaneously ran out of tissues.

tae learned a new word last night (from her non-linear story book courtesy of aunt jen) - chaos.

big kid stuff

yay!  tae didn't cry this morning when i left her at school.  it was rather cute - this 5 year old girl was helping tae out, and talking to tae as i was getting ready to leave - telling tae that her mommy would come pick her up at the end of the day.  when i left, the two of them went off together to ride bikes... this 5 year old is like twice as big as tae too.  funny.

we're going on a big adventure to nyc this weekend to go to the apia spoken word summit.  inside my brain, i'm hoping that tae will surprise me and sit through writing workshops with me.  but, the parent in me expects that we will be spending a lot of time in playgrounds in lower manhattan or maybe in starbucks and b&n if it's oppressively hot outside.  oh well.  one can always hope.

manic mondays

i'm not organized enough for movies to day.  it took tae 2.5 hours to go to sleep last night, and i'm, well, tired.

so in lieu of movies, here are two of tae's recent pieces.  the first is entitled, "looks like mommy" and the second is entitled "untitled.  face on the bathroom wall."

enjoy.